Before you start

Sufficient educational background

A prerequisite for admission is that applicants have a Bachelor (or Master) degree in biology, ecology, environmental sciences, oceanography, marine sciences, geography, geology, or other equivalent degrees with minimum 180 credits at the latest before Sep 1st 2016. For non-European students, preferably before Feb 28th 2016.

Language Requirements

Knowledge of the English language is considered as a basic requirement. All students must provide evidence of their proficiency in English through one of the following documents:

A recent Certificate of a University Language Centre testifying that the student masters the necessary knowledge of English to function academically (specify CEF-level / minimum CEF-level B2)

A recent Cambridge English certificate: Cambridge English First (FCE) - grade A or B

A certificate proving that you have followed at least 1 year of higher education in English

Language Opportunities

Language diversity provides an added-value to studying and living in Europe. EMBC+ students have the opportunity to learn and use at least three languages in addition to improving their academic English:

Dutch, German or Portuguese in the first year

Spanish or French in the second year

All universities provide language courses and in addition most provide a course about the culture and history of the local region. Both language and culture courses are within the EMBC+ curriculum and count as transferrable skills credits.

Legalising your diploma

If you are accepted into the EMBC+ programme you will be required to send copies of your higher education diploma(s) and academic transcript of records to the coordination office, in order to finalise your application and to start the enrolment procedure. It is important that we can ascertain the authenticity of your diploma and transcript of records. The procedure is as follows:

When you obtained your diploma at one of partners of EMBC+, the procedure is fairly simple. You need a certified copy of your documents sent to us by the university. This means that we have to receive a clear and readable copy, stamped and signed by the university that issued your documents confirming that it is a true copy.

When you obtained your diploma at another university, one of three routes has to be taken, depending on the country where the diploma was issued:

You need a certified copy

You need an apostille

You need to legalise your diploma

The list of requirements for each country can be found via this link where you should enter the following data:

Situation: 'Use a foreign document in Belgium'

Country: Insert the country where your diploma was issued

Document group: 'other documents drawn up or legalised by a competent local authority'

Please note that you will have contact the institute that issued your diploma to obtain a certified copy or to find out what the procedure is to have your diploma apostilled or legalised.

Important remark about translation: if your higher education diploma(s) are not issued in English, French, German, or Dutch, they need to be translated by a certified translator and the original and translation need to be added to your application.